REINCARNATION AND

THE TAWHEED FAITH

By Moustafa F. Moukarim

April 1989

Reincarnation, the belief that the human soul can be reborn after death into a new body. Belief in Reincarnation is very old and very controversial.

Belief in rebirth after death seems to be as old as man himself. We find traces of this belief in the myths and legends of most primitive people. The belief has been found in Africa, India, China, Europe and North America. It goes back to ancient Egypt, Greece and many other civilizations. Many ancient and modern philosophers proclaimed it.

Plato, the Greek philosopher thought that the passage of souls through successive, earthly lives may explain the progressive rise in the level of human intelligence and knowledge.

Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician believed he had lived other lives, In one of these he thought that he had been a Trojan who was killed when the Greeks burned the city of Troy in 1164 BC

Ovid, the Roman poet who lived from 43 BC to 17 AD wrote: "Then Death, so called, is but old matter dressed in some new figure, and a varied vest. Thus all things are but altered, nothing dies. And here and there the unbodied spirit flies."

On his deathbed in 1786, Frederick the Great of Prussia said bitterly, "I am convinced that nothing is destroyed in nature. So I know for certainty that the more noble part of me (that is, the soul) will not die. Though I may not be a King in my future life. I shall nevertheless live an active life".

Napoleon, the emperor of France, use to say that he was Charlemagne, the great Frankish king who lived from 742 to 814 AD Charlemagne established an empire that was later called the Holy Roman Empire. He became Emperor of the West in 800 AD

Benjamin Franklin, whom American history regards as a very wise man, believed that death is not the end of life. He believed that the human soul could be reborn after the body died, and that it would have a new life.

Henry Ford, the famous automobile manufacturer, was a strong believer in reincarnation. He expressed his interest in reincarnation in a newspaper interview in 1938. "Work is useless if we cannot use our experience in another life," Ford told his interviewer. "When I first heard of reincarnation, I knew then that I was no longer limited by time". Ford went on to say: "Genius is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Of this I am sure, we are here for a purpose. We will go on. Mind and memory, they are eternal."

George Patton, the famous US Army General who commanded Allied troops in North Africa and Sicily in World War Two, was a strong believer in reincarnation. He thought that he had once fought as a legion commander in Caesar's army. He also believed that he had been there when the Greeks built the great Trojan horse that led to the fall of Troy. And that he also fought beside Richard Lion-heart in the Third Crusade (1189-1199 AD) to free the Holy land from the Arabs and Turkish Moslems. Patton was also certain that he would go on fighting wars in future lives as he had in the past ones.

Dejavu, the feeling that we have done or seen something before. This is one of the proofs that believers support their claims that reincarnation really happens.

Psychic investigators have estimated that at least half of the people of the United States have felt Dejavu at one time or another.

Dejavu is not full memory of an experience or a place we may have visited in the past. Today's sight or experience strikes deep in our subconscious minds, giving us a brief glimpse of the past. This stirs ancient memories, but not enough to give us full recognition of the person, place or event. All we receive is an uneasy, puzzling feeling that there is something we should remember.

Hypnosis, was used to send a person' s mind back to his or her other lives. A very famous experiment was introduced at the International Spiritual Convention in 1900 in Paris, France; By Count Eugene Albert De Rochas, the director of the Institute of Polytechnic in Paris.

The experiment involved a Mrs. Rogers, who was hypnotized by Mr. Bovier, an expert in the field of hypnosis. They were able to return Mrs. Rogers to eleven different lives, as far back as the year 126 AD

This particular experiment involved witnesses who were not the same people in each session. They interrogated Mrs. Rogers while under hypnosis in a fashion similar to that of courts they asked her many different questions, repeating the same question many times, Mrs. Rogers always gave identical answers to similar questions. Those and other answers, including dates and places were verified. Some dates mentioned were correct up to one or two years. Many other scientists confirmed having similar results in this field.

The Bible and Reincarnation :

Solomon the son of David, king of Jerusalem speaking in the Biblical old Testament, first chapter, ninth verse, said: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

Tenth verse: "Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us."

Eleventh verse: "There is no remembrance of former things; Neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after."

There were many other references to reincarnation in the Old and New Testament. In the year 325 AD the Roman emperor Constantine the great, along with his mother Helena, had deleted references to reincarnation contained in the New Testament. The second council of Constantinople, meeting in the year 553 AD, confirmed this action and declared the concept of reincarnation a heresy (unorthodoxy). Apparently they thought this concept would weaken the growing power of the church by giving humans too much time to seek their salvation. The early Gnostics - Clement of Alexandria, Origen (see below), Saint Jerome, and many others - believed that they had lived before and would again.

Many of the early saints of the Catholic Church believed in reincarnation, St. Augustine 354 - 430 AD belonged to a pagan cult before he was converted to Christianity. One of his duties in this cult was to teach reincarnation. He kept this belief in rebirth even after he became the Christian Bishop of Hippo (a place in North Africa). He once wrote: "Did I live in another body, or somewhere else, before entering my mother's womb?"

The single person who had the most to do with spreading a belief in reincarnation in the early Church was Origen 185 - 254 AD

Origen was a famous Christian teacher and writer and lived in Alexandria. He wrote: "Is it not reasonable that every soul for some mysterious reason (I speak now according to Pythagoras and Plato) is introduced into a body, and introduced according to its desert and former actions?"

According to Unitarianism, TAWHEED faith, all human souls were created at once, their number is fixed for all time, it is not subject to decrease or increase. Upon death, the soul is immediately reborn only into another human body. The body serving as an envelop or robe to the soul.

The process of transmigration goes on to the end of time. In the process souls rise through their attachment to higher degree of excellence, or deteriorate to become degraded by neglecting the teachings of religion.

All souls were created with equal tendencies to good and evil, and are free to choose between right and wrong.

Assume that there is no reincarnation. Assume that God judges peoples' behavior of one single life. Then to be fair to all He should create them equal. They should all be identical to each other, in health, wealth appearance, environments, metal capability, physical capacity, etc.

There should not be a blind person when others can see. There should not be a retarded person when others are normal. All people should be of one race, one color, one heritage, and one everything.

We know that this is not the case. Then I wonder where is His divine justice?

The TAWHEED faith affirms that the soul in its repeated transmigration experiences all conditions of life; fortune and misfortune, riches and poverty, health and illness, etc.

Souls are thereby given repeated opportunity to redeem themselves. Thus, DIVINE JUSTICE IS THUS ESTABLISHED.

The soul's path in its human frame is a serious challenge. The soul is equipped with sufficient devices to win the battle if it so desires; the battle is for wider knowledge and higher spiritual treasure that moves it progressively upward until it reaches purity.

The followings are some answers from the TAWHEED faith, to questions

asked about reincarnation:

1. Does the soul have a choice as to which body it will reenter for its next life? No.

2. Must the soul remain in the same family? No.

3. Can the soul cross races and continents? Yes.

4. Does the Soul lose its memory of the old life immediately after death? Yes.

5. Are we intended to forget? Yes.

6. Are those who die a sudden death, more likely to relate to their accident in the second life? Yes.

The ever recurring life and the spirit's uninterrupted contact with the Universal Mind raises its stock of knowledge and strengthens its awareness of cosmic truth, which, after all, is the road to eternal happiness, the goal of all ideal goals.

The doctrine of Reincarnation makes thinking the exclusive f unction of the mind. It does not say that the soul identifies itself throughout the generations nor does it say that the soul carries the memory of one generation to the next.

If we assume that a soul carries the memory of one generation to the next, then a newly born baby should have a knowledge equal to that of an adult, This baby should be able at the moment of birth to think, speak, learn etc.,

If in a previous life a person was a doctor, lawyer or whatever, then he dies. His soul, which carries the memory of its previous life, is reborn in a new body. This means that as a newly born baby, this person could start practicing his/her profession at the age of one day. This is not the case at all.

The brain, which is the warehouse where our memories are stored, dies along with the body, and so does all the different organs. The soul deserts the dead body pure like the day it was created. It enters another designated new body and immediately commences its quest for knowledge.

Self-identification by the soul, according to the TAWHEED faith occurs only once, that is, on the last day.

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